Known Unknowns
by PriestessAmy
Summary: Zoe is a country gal with a particular set of skills. So when evil literally takes up residence in her home, she decides it's up to her to take it down and save the girl. Even if the girl in question is married. And one of the monster's creators.
1. Theme for a Pretty Girl

Evie's greatest mistake was leaving Zoe alive.

Shortly after Eveline took control, it became apparent that something about Zoe made her immune to mind control. She was still infected, and on a good day it seemed as though Evie could even read her thoughts. But for the most part, she was allowed to do her own thing without fear of the family or the molded. And it was that freedom which let Zoe forge her plan.

Zoe had always been fairly sharp – not smart like Lucas, but certainly more clever. Daddy had taught her about hunting and some basic survival techniques, back before everything changed. She knew which plants were good and which were bad. She knew what you could put on a wound to keep down the swelling. She'd learned how to survive with just a knife, and how to improvise weapons. Zoe was a dangerous beast to leave unattended.

For a long time, Zoe used the patience that she'd learned on those hunting trips to watch everyone and see what they were doing, to get some understanding of what Evie's plans were. Over the following months, Eveline would send out Jack and Marguerite along with crews of the monsters to raid things from the ship, and occasionally they would even kidnap strangers from the area for... some horrible purpose. And then there was Lucas, who did little except for working away at all hours in that creepy playhouse of his.

When she wasn't spying, Zoe was tracing a slow spiral out from the center of the Baker estate to see just how far away she could get before Evie's "gift" would kick in and make her feel like vomiting up her entire stomach. It wasn't a fun process, but information was going to be one of her most crucial weapons in the weeks and months to come.

The passage of time also made her bolder, and she found she could no longer sit idly by and let people die needlessly in that house of horrors. The first time she freed someone, it was a major rush, even if the poor fools didn't make it too far. Zoe was happy just to make that little shit's life more difficult. After that, she felt brave enough to start stealing things from the raids on the sunken ship, usually documents since they were the easiest to grab.

Still, if Zoe was being honest, there was another reason she continued to make dangerous excursions back into her old home.

Constantly looking over her shoulder, she snuck into the guest house and down into the basement. For some reason, that Mia woman was living here instead of the main house. Well, less 'living here' and more 'a prisoner'. Which was confusing because Zoe had definitely seen her participating in both kidnapping and raiding. Maybe she had a stronger will, like Zoe did. Not enough to avoid being monster-ified, but at least to find some moments of sanity.

Mia sat up, startled at the sight of someone she didn't really recognize, gasping softly. "You're... Zoe right? And here I was starting to think you were a myth, a legend. Or maybe they just got rid of you."

Zoe leaned up against the bars of the door and smirked at the woman, giving her a proper look now that things weren't so tense and insane. Even worn down by everything that had happened, she was pretty. Auburn hair and presumably pale skin under all that dirt, and a mouth that was made for big toothy grins. _God, Zoe, get your head out of your ass. You came here for a reason, not to just ogle the pretty girl._ "Well, I am kind of a legend. And they did kick me out for not playing along. So you're not wrong." _What did I just say? No flirting!_

Still, mission accomplished, because Mia actually cracked a tired smile, if only for a few seconds. "That explains why no one wants to talk about you. So... why _did_ you come here...?"

"Answers. I'm trying to figure out what's going on here, and everything points back to you. Well, mostly back to that little girl, obviously. But she came here with you. And she seems to think you're her mom."

Mia sighed and looked down at her hands where they were folded together in her lap. "You're probably right. I assume that's the case. But I'm afraid I don't remember a fucking thing so... I'm not gonna be much help to you..."

Zoe didn't get where she was without being pretty stubborn, so she was willing to take this information in stride. "Damn, gonna have to switch to plan B then... Unfortunate..."

Mia perked up a bit, perhaps encouraged by the fact that Zoe even had a plan B to begin with. "What would that be?"

"Well, that there is the shitty part. I can't tell you. I can barely even trust myself to keep this information secret from our guest's mind-games." She shrugged and began to push back from the door before looking back at Mia, trying to conjure another winning smile. "But uh... that doesn't mean I can't sneak back over here from time to time. It's not always gonna be possible, but I'm sure you'd like the chance to talk to someone who's not overcome with mania and bloodthirst."

"Can't say I'd object to a visitor now and then. Just... stay safe. I hear it's a nightmare out there."

Zoe winked at her, unable to help herself. Mia didn't seem to mind so much. "Darlin'... You don't know the half of it..." She turned and left before impulse control failed and she stuck around for a few more hours. Things were quiet and she made it back to her trailer without incident. Intrigued by the realization that Mia had lost some of her memory, Zoe started fine-tuning her new move – an antidote to this bullshit.

Once they ditched Eveline's 'gift', Mia might be able to help her craft a way to kill that monster.

* * *

As it turned out, getting an antidote together was tough enough. From what scraps and pieces Zoe could cobble together, it seemed like she needed a head and an arm from something called the D-Series. It took multiple trips out to the ship to find the head, though that word was misleading. The damn thing was like a movie prop, all shriveled and sad.

That was when the molded stopped being so nice. She was at least able to avoid them during the day, and the big lumps weren't advanced enough to understand complicated door technology, so she was safe as long as she got back into her trailer before nightfall. It also became a part of her daytime routine to pop in on Mia and see how she was doing. Since they obviously couldn't talk too much about how Zoe's plan to save everything was going, they just shot the shit instead. She would bring her food or books if she could swing it, things that wouldn't raise too much suspicion.

Mia could at least remember that she had a husband – fucking shame, that – and the fact that she'd lied to him about being on nanny job for some rich family. Zoe nodded her head and smirked. "Sounds like the kind of thing a secret agent would do, ya know? Are you some kinda James Bond type, Mia? Hiding a bunch of badass moves under that unassuming mask?"

"I don't... think so? Hard to know for certain until I get free or find a gun in my hands or something. But I imagine that would be dangerous for the time being if I get turned while I'm holding a weapon. I'm safe, alive, and only occasionally being forced to commit horrible crimes against man and god. But the sooner you do the thing you want to do the better."

"Bet you look amazing in a tux though. That's gotta count for something." This time, she actually managed to get a laugh out of the captive, which was a good boost to Zoe's confidence. "Ooh, do you prefer martinis when you drink? Maybe Agent Winters drives an Aston Martin~"

Mia was still giggling softly, trying to keep herself from making too much noise. "Stop, stop, Jesus! You're gonna get both of us caught!"

Zoe shook her head, her face instantly becoming hard. "It's not as bad as you think. Daddy might hack off a limb, or maybe mama will spit some bugs in your face. Lucas is the one you wanna watch out for, he was sadistic even before this started."

Mia sat up and scrambled closer to the door. "Wait, so it's true? Becoming infected with the bacteria allows human hosts to reattach limbs? They said it was possible but I haven't actually seen it before."

"Uh, Sugar, I thought you said you couldn't remember everything..."

Just as suddenly, the light drained back out of Mia's face as she slumped to the floor of her cell once more. "I can't. But... Ahhh" she groaned, gripping the bridge of her nose. "It's there, just out of my reach or... Gah, I knew, for a second I knew! Dammit!" She kicked out her foot, striking the wall and wincing. "I hate this so much." Mia finally looked in her direction again, eyes pleading.

That look said it all, and shattered Zoe's heart into a dozen pieces. She shot up to her feet and looked at the other woman with a resolute nod. "You just sit tight, hon. I'm real close to getting this sorted. And then we can get the hell outta here. You gotta husband waiting on you. And I need a hot shower and a goddamn drink. Everyone's got something keeps 'em going."

* * *

Despite Zoe's positivity, the arm was not nearly as easy to hunt down as the head was. Whether Eveline actually realized the damn thing was important or was just driven by pre-programmed impulses, she had squirreled it away somewhere in the old house. And while the molded didn't give her too much trouble once she hunted down a shotgun, bugs didn't have the same level of sapience. If you set foot in that building, they came after you – save for mama and her magic lantern anyway.

But Zoe had been prepping for this day. Lucas might have had the know-how when it came to elaborate traps and computers. But Zoe knew how to engineer something dangerous at a much more basic level. For example, a homemade flamethrower that would let her torch the everloving fuck out of some annoying bugs.

The baby dolls around the entrance were a nice touch, they really accentuated the terror of it all. Never mind the fact that the number of nests had doubled since her last visit, but half the floor was starting to cave in, forcing Zoe to massively slow down her search of the building. Even if it was still daylight hours, making too much noise would bring mama around to investigate. But sneaking around bugs was basically impossible. So Zoe had to crawl a few feet around, torch some bugs and burn down a nest, and then move forward a few more feet to repeat it all over again.

A glance at her watch told her that she didn't have long left, and she was running out of rooms to search. Her quest brought her to a place she only vaguely remembered from when she was young, a room that essentially went unused. But according to daddy, it had once upon a time been used as a detention cell to send bad children and lock them away. Bad voodoo.

Of-fucking-course, the arm was behind a secret panel, inside a creepy shrine, and attached to a dried-up corpse. Still, Zoe had it, she had the arm! She crawled out through the door and came face to face with Eveline. Zoe hadn't seen her in what felt like ages, but that still didn't explain why she looked like a woman in her late twenties. That should have been shocking, but it really wasn't at this point.

"Sister. We need to talk."


	2. Novocaine for the Soul

Mia stirred, awoken by the sound of hurried footsteps and a steady series of curses and expletives. As she approached the door of her cell, she saw that Zoe was indeed hurrying through the darkness to reach her. "What the hell is going on? Is everything okay?"

Zoe was still muttering as she walked up to meet her at the door, shaking her head. "Fuck shit ass... Little Eveline found me. I only barely managed to coat her in fire before getting away. Which means that now every single monster on the property got their kill switch engaged." Zoe started moving back into the darkness, looking for something while she spoke. "Only... Evie? She ain't so little anymore. How the hell does a girl grow fifteen years in a dozen months?"

Mia gasped as another memory started to shove its way to the surface. "Accelerated aging... Dammit, that was supposed to be fixed..." She tried to dig in deep and keep the memory from slipping away. But that same damn splitting headache stopped her, filling her mind with a blinding pain. "No no... Just for a moment, it was so clear." While Mia talked to herself, Zoe was busy hunting around the basement, a woman on a mission for something. She suddenly reappeared with a massive set of bolt cutters and snapped the chain off the door without a second thought. "Wh-! No! Zoe, you have to know what a bad idea that is. I could-"

And just like that she was no longer herself. Mia shoved the door open, tackling Zoe and slamming her against a nearby wall, pinning her with a sickening, guttural growl. " _I could kill you! Hrrmmmm, you'd like that wouldn't you? I could take it slow, really enjoy myself, make it last all night long. You're not exactly subtle when you look at me. Do mama and daddy know that their daughter is-?_ "

There was a sudden, sharp pain in her neck and Mia stumbled back with another growl. " _What did you...?_ " Despite the pain and the slight burning, she reached up to her neck and found no wound, only a small bit of blood. The anger and bloodlust drained away as quickly as it had taken her and she was left feeling dizzy and confused. "You...? How did...?" Her legs gave out and she sunk to the floor, dry-heaving a few times, then vomiting up a mass of horrible black goop onto the floor with a sickening noise. Despite the body horror, Zoe knelt by her side and rubbed her back sympathetically, even if just seconds ago Mia had been threatening to tear out her throat, insinuating awful things about her.

"Yeah, it had the same effect on me. Tastes terrible and hurts like a bitch. But you'll be right as rain in a minute or two." Zoe continued to soothe her while Mia spit up the last of the bacterium and fungus.

"S-Sorry... About all that... stuff. I... huurrkk... That was the virus talking."

Zoe chuckled, either unphased by the cruelty or covering over it for the sake of being polite. "Already forgiven and forgotten, sugar. That stuff is pretty damn nasty, and I didn't even have to go through the transformation and anger issues." She stood up and offered Mia a hand, pulling her up to her feet. "Come on, we need to get to my trailer. It's not perfect, but it's safer than here."

* * *

The trailer was a bit of a mess, but Mia couldn't really blame Zoe for not taking the time to clean up when everything was going to hell. And it did still have a few homey touches that made it more welcoming than the entire rest of the estate put together. The cache of weapons didn't hurt either.

She was seated at the little dining area table with a massive pile of papers in front of her. Zoe lay stretched out on the bed across the room. The woman had done a lot in recent weeks, particularly putting that antidote together. But there were still tons of answers that it seemed only Mia could really sort out.

Mia might have been free of Evie's control, but her memories were still filtering back slowly, far too slowly. Looking at all these random documents did seem to be helping, at least a little. "I still don't understand how you got your hands on all these..."

"Very carefully. Evie wants to horde everything she can from the ship. But she's still basically just a kid, and mama's really the only one who knows how to actually hide something competently. So it was just a case of sneaking in, taking anything that looked vaguely important, and getting the hell out of dodge." She sounded so casual about her adventures, but in the moment, Mia kind of admired how much Zoe had gone through. Was psycho-Mia right? Did Zoe have ulterior motives? Hell, did Mia?

She turned over the next page and a few words in particular caught her eye. "Special agents... Douglas and Winters... Parental figures... W-Wait." She sat up a little taller, reading the words again and again, trying to force the memories to return faster. "You were right. I mean, I'm not James Bond, but I remember. I used to be in the military, I... I did... counseling and psychology. But Ethan had just proposed to me and we had a pregnancy scare and we needed money. I was courted by this PMC, and I was desperate enough to not ask too many questions. Before I knew it, I was helping them to make... make people. Living weapons... Oh god." Mia figured that getting more of her memory back would be a release, that it would make her feel better. She never expected to discover that she had been part of something so monstrous.

Zoe didn't look too pleased either. She was sitting up on the edge of the bed now, eyeing her like she was tempted to throw her out of the trailer. "You better start telling me that there's some good news or we're gonna have a problem."

Mia quickly flicked through some more papers, nodding quickly. Finding these things out about herself, she didn't really like it any more than Zoe did. And she wanted to fix it. "Yes! Yes, there's... Shit, where did it go? Here! The... The necrotoxin. I can still fix this. We just need the sample of Eveline's DNA and the machine to process it. It will destroy her, and the rest of your family will go back to normal." Mia pushed away the stack of papers with a sigh and looked back at Zoe who still clearly didn't know what to make of her. "Listen, you can distrust me as much as you want. Keep a gun trained on me if you like. Hell, you can just give me a weapon and send me on my way. I'll understand. But I promise you, I am not that... thing's mother, and all I want is to stop her before she can spread her influence any further."

Surprisingly, Zoe began to chuckle, then stood up and grabbed something from the nearby closet. She set it on the table in front of Mia and once again it felt like a portion of her brain was unlocked. The canvas messenger bag was well-worn after many years of use. Inside was a collection of familiar items. "My favorite leather jacket. And these are the gun and knife I was issued." She looked back at the other woman, brow arching. "You've been saving this stuff? And you're gonna just give it to me?"

"When I saw your name on all this stuff, I figured it might come in handy eventually. I couldn't steal everything, but I managed to get away with whatever seemed... essential." She moved back to the other side of the trailer and stripped off her tank top without batting an eye. Unlike their other interactions, she didn't seem to be doing it as a flirt or anything. She put on a new shirt just as quickly before slipping on a flannel, rolling up the sleeves.

"As for just letting you have it, well... I mean it belongs to you. And you seem like you have as much of a vendetta with that girl as I do. You help me save my family, I'd say that basically makes you karmatically even." She slung the shotgun around her shoulder by the carry strap and then picked up a sturdy baseball bat. "Now come on. Finding a tiny vial in a big-ass tanker could take all night, and the molded ain't gonna make it easy on us."

* * *

Neither of them expected just how right Zoe was. They'd barely made it outside the trailer before they heard a hissing sound and they turned to see one of those crawling monsters coming their way. It leapt, and in an instant was brought down by a hail of precisely aimed gunfire. Mia looked down and realized that she was the one who had taken it down, then looked back at Zoe who seemed to be equally shocked. Both of them began to laugh nervously. "Damn, maybe I am James Bond..." That shot had been so reflexive, and if pressed, Mia would never be able to tell you how she did it. She didn't know intellectually how to even hold a gun at the moment, but her instincts kicked in so powerfully that she was even able to keep the machine gun's recoil in check.

Zoe strolled up to the quickly dissolving puddle of goo and gave it a swift kick. "Remember to stick close. If either one of us gets tagged and claimed again, that's it. There's no more antidote."

"Do me a favor. She gets me again, you blow my head off before I'm infected enough to regenerate from it. I'm not going back to that." Zoe looked at her in surprise, but eventually relented and nodded in understanding.

As it turned out, there was a path out to the old tanker that had been worn down from all the raids the Bakers had made. And while Zoe seemed to think the boat would be crawling with molded, the road from there to the house was pretty quiet. The two of them could only move around in silence for so long, and Zoe started offering more questions for Mia to answer (when possible). At the moment, she was hung up on Evie's family obsession. "Okay, I mean I get the stealth thing. But... why's it gotta be a mom and dad? Why not two moms? Or two dads? Or like... a neurotic single dad and his two goofy brothers? Why program her to be so heteronormative?" The look on Mia's face must have been pretty clear because Zoe became immediately defensive. "Oh, what, just cuz it's the bayou, we ain't got internet? I'm a southern queer girl, of course I have a Tumblr."

Mia couldn't help but giggle a little at the honesty of it all. "Sorry. Honestly? A lot of it came down to pure numbers. Evie was always intended to be a stealth weapon, and it was my job to determine both her personality and also what factors would make people the least likely to pay attention to her. So... say for instance having her prefer two mothers, that increases her likelihood of raising a red flag by... three percent. Having a mom and a dad lowers that number by three percent. All the scientists and soldiers cared about were those percentages, so the order came down – straight parents. Same reasons for making her a girl, giving her a slightly ambiguous ethnicity, her quiet nature, all that."

"So. You're a special agent nerd. Less Bond, more Q?" Zoe looked over at her with a cheeky grin.

"I-! am... a human being, Miss Baker. I can be badass and smart at the same time. I mean, case in point, look at you."

Zoe actually snorted in response to that, chuckling, practically guffawing if it weren't so loud. "I mean, I'll take badass. But I ain't never been what you might call intelligent. That was always Lucas' thing. I'm just clever, which is the nice way of saying I'm precocious and prone to getting in trouble."

Mia was going to say something meaningful in response, but before she could, they pushed through some foliage and the tanker came into proper view. She had forgotten how imposing the damn thing was, how ominous and creepy. She was starting to remember more. "Okay... I think if we can just get to the cabin that Alan and I were staying in, we'll find the sample. Then we need to get it to the machine, and we're practically done. What could possibly go wrong?"

The other woman shook her head, clicking her tongue. "Little piece of advice, hon? Never ask that question. Ever."


	3. My Beloved Monster

Something could, as it turned out, possibly go wrong.

Specifically, someone getting to the vial before them. The two of them had only made it as far as crossing the crappy little dock that daddy had put together when they started raiding the tanker. Zoe was brought to a halt by the sight of something taped to the heavy iron door, and as she ripped it off she instantly recognized it. It was one half of a set of radios that she and Lucas had used all the time as children.

Zoe pushed down the talk button with her thumb in the most angry way she possibly could – which wasn't much, but it would have to do. "You son of a bitch. What did you do?"

"Aww, c'mon now, Zoe, that's uncalled for! We haven't played a game together in ages, and now when I try to start one, you get all grumpy! Ain't no need for that..."

She exchanged a look with Mia, trying to find her calm before her anger got her in trouble. "What game, Lucas?"

"Consider this a game of fate, big sister. I got no interest in going back to the boring way things used to be. And you are, unfortunately, choosing the lame, boring option. I could always just smash this here bitty vial. But that ain't sportin' or fun. So here's the deal. You and your girlfriend got twenty four hours. Get one key card from the dissection room, and another from the green house. Those'll get you in the barn with me, and we can have a good old-fashioned throw-down. Get movin'!"

Zoe shut down the radio and tossed it to Mia, trying and failing to not show how pissed she was at that moment. "I would cave in his skull if I knew it wasn't going to do any good..." She cocked the shotgun and started moving back down the dock toward the house. "You know, you would think that this is like 'Oh, he must have been so nice before all this happened' except that ain't true at all. He was always a little shit, and Evie has somehow found a way to make him a big shit."

Mia didn't seem to know what to say, so she just drew her own weapon and followed close after her. "Uh, so I guess we'll start with the dissection room? That's in the basement, right?"

"Yeah..." Zoe pushed through the brush and back in the direction of the main house building, then just as suddenly stopped and looked back over at her, feeling guilt and tension starting to crawl over her. "Look, uh... I know I've been a little bit shameless lately. And what Lucas said there on the radio-"

"Zoe..."

"No, you even said it yourself, when you were being controlled for a second back there by Evie. Mia, I'm not really a good person. In high school, I became known as _that girl_. That girl who would pick up a girl who had just been dumped, dust her off, and sleep with her. That was my thing, and it's not really the kind of reputation that does you any good. If a guy did the things I did, he'd be a total creep. Okay? And after graduation, I realized that I needed to start doing better. Shortly after that, you and Eveline showed up, and self-improvement got kinda difficult." Zoe sighed and slipped back into the main back yard, glancing around and dropping her volume slightly. "So maybe I had kind of a relapse. There was a lonely pretty girl in the basement who could use a friend. And I... probably could have been more careful about that."

"Fuck..." Zoe thought Mia was getting mad at her until she turned to see what she was looking at, a molded coming their way. She raised her shotgun and systematically demolished its head (or whatever you called that gross mass). "Uh, let's just keep conversation to a minimum for now..."

Yes, she was quite certain she'd fucked up now. But they still had a big job to do and she didn't have the luxury of moping. "Right. Radio silence." Stepping back inside the house always felt like a horrific experience. The foyer was deadly quiet as Zoe led the way toward the basement stairs, keeping her shotgun elevated, ready for pretty much anything. So it was kind of a surprise to find the place empty. After the one monster out in the yard, there was nothing in their path to the dissection room. Which was an issue because that meant they were walking right into trouble. No doubt Jack and Marguerite were alerted to their approach, which meant Lucas and Evie had put together a plan, and adding a bunch of molded to the mix would ruin it.

* * *

"Dissection" room was always such a horrific title. For Zoe, the place was actually kind of precious to her. When daddy relented and started teaching her to hunt, this was where he taught her about treating the animal right. How to cut something up to get the most out of it. How to take the skin so you could make it into shoes or whatever later. What to do with excessive fat if you didn't want it on your meat. He even taught her how to salt-cure, explaining what life was like for country folk before fridges and ice boxes were common.

Now it was an altogether different place where horrible things happened. Each degradation of her home was an insult in its own way. But for some reason this felt particularly cruel.

Somewhat more disturbing than the lack of molded was the fact that there was no Jack either. She had honestly expected to find him here. But the key card was sitting out in plain sight on a wooden table on the upper level. Zoe and Mia stood there just staring at it for a while.

"I mean, it's just a card. It's not like it's attached to a trap or anything." Mia reached out and took it, slipping it carefully into her pocket. They turned to go when the sound of a door opening caught their attention. Jack strolled out casually holding a massive scythe.

"Zoe, somehow I always knew this demon of yours would come back to haunt us. But I never thought you would actually try to steal Mia away from her daughter. You know I can't let this stand." He raised his scythe and began to menace in their general direction.

Drawing a long, slow breath, Zoe leveled the shotgun in his direction, though she wasn't firing just yet. After all... this was dad. The man who had taught her to fire the damn thing in the first place. The man who taught her to cure meat. Her own father. "Anything we do, he can grow back from. It feels like Lucas and Evie care more about the game than anything. Focus on his arms and legs and then we can bolt." Zoe spoke softly, and tried to keep cool about this. But it wasn't the easiest thing in the world.

Still, Mia clearly understood and the two of them quickly started unloading into him at the knees. There was a sickening kind of sound as his limbs separated and he fell to the ground. Not that it phased him, Jack was up quickly and already pulling himself toward them. "Ohhhhh, my sweet baby girl. You fucked up now. There's a storm coming, girl, and you will not survive the lightning!"

"I-I don't want to hurt you, dad! You can still fight this!" She aimed the shotgun toward his head, but her finger refused to pull the trigger.

Mia apparently had no time for her crisis of conscience, taking her hand and dragging her away before the fight prolonged things any further. "Now is really not the time, sweetie!" She was dragged down and around toward the closest door that would let them through. Although the rest of the house seemed to still be pretty quiet, they kept moving as fast as their bodies were willing to go.

* * *

The two of them didn't stop moving until they reached her trailer once again. Despite the fact that it made her look like a total loser, Zoe slumped down to sit on a random crate, giving a little whimper. "I don't like this... I really don't like this..."

Mia gently lay a hand on her shoulder, doing her best to smile warmly, even if it was obvious she was pretty freaked out herself. "We're gonna make it through this. We've already got one of the key cards."

Zoe shook her head and looked over at her sadly. "Not that. I mean, I guess that too? But I mean... When this all started, and I was living out here and sneaking around in the shadows, just stealing whatever I could, that wasn't so terrible. But having to stand there and look at someone who looks just like my father but acts nothing like him? And having to shoot him? Knowing I have to do the same with mom? And this deep, sinking feeling I have somewhere in the pit of my stomach that Lucas is doing at least some of this of his own free will... Evie has done so much more than just take my life from me. She's perverted it..."

Mia's hand drifted away from her shoulder and she appeared to deflate somewhat. "And that's my fault... I'm sorry, Zoe, I shouldn't have brought this down on your head. If I just hadn't been so careless, then-"

"Don't. Okay? It's a lot more complicated than that and you know it."

The other woman tried to stand a little taller, nodding, attempting to exude confidence even if she wasn't feeling it. "You're right about one thing. You shouldn't have to fight your mother. It's not worth it. I'll keep her distracted and you can go hunt for the card."

Zoe pushed off the trailer and began to chuckle softly, passing her flamethrower to Mia. "Mama's little 'babies' are gonna be a problem. You'll need this. But take care of her, I made her myself, special."

She laughed gently and took it from her, holding it with a careful touch, obviously taking her words to heart. "I'll treat her right, don't you worry."

* * *

Unlike the main house, the greenhouse was abuzz with activity – no pun intended. There were hives and nests everywhere, filled with bugs that were more than happy to attack any invaders. Still, Mia's training seemed to be the real deal, because even with a new weapon in hand, she was totally competent with it, burning anything in sight that posed a threat.

As they stepped into the main part of the building where all the plants were blooming into strange creations, there she was. Zoe's mother gave an inhuman growl and put aside her precious lamp. "How can you do this to your own family!? I can't believe I could have raised such a selfish, stupid girl. You think I don't see what you're doing? Eveline is your sister now, and that means Mia is your mother. But you wanna reject her gift and chase something so sick? I always knew this predilection of yours would be our downfall!"

Zoe tried to summon up something to say in response, but it was impossible. As Marguerite lectured her, she began to... change. Her limbs grew out with sickening sounds, her belly swelling out into something disturbing. It was just too much, to see her sweet, kind mother becoming a monster.

Thankfully, Mia wasn't so easily phased. She just raised the flamethrower and stared down the barrel at her. "Go... I've got this. I'll keep her on the move. Just shout when you've got it..." She spoke in a soft voice to Zoe, then raised her volume as she turned her full attention on Marguerite. "You don't mean that! She's your daughter and you love her, even if Evie is making you think otherwise. I know what it's like to have her there, over your shoulder, constantly whispering lies into your ear."

Zoe turned and hurried into the next area, almost certain that the key card was going to be hiding somewhere among all the plants and flowers. As she left, she heard the sound of her mother howling and the flamethrower going off. Mia was a saint for taking up the job of fighting off Marguerite, but hearing her cries of pain was still not easy.

It wasn't easy to find the damn thing, scrambling around there in the dirt, but finally she spotted it. Just as she reached for it, a vine snaked out and wrapped around her wrist. Zoe gasped and started to pull away, but it was already holding her tight, and she couldn't just rip it out of the dirt. It was rooted way too firmly. Knowing it was a long shot, she looked up toward the top level where she could see the occasional burst of light from the flamethrower. "Mia! Toss me your knife!"

"Little occupied up here, hon!" There was another blast of fire, another howl of anger and surprise. "Alright, fuck it!" A moment later she watched in surprise and maybe a tiny bit of arousal as Mia came vaulting down from the rickety wooden structure, landing on the ground below with flawless precision. In one fluid motion she grabbed her knife from her side and tossed it to Zoe.

She didn't catch it quite as smoothly, but she at least managed to pick it up from the ground and flick it open anyway, severing the plant and snatching up the key card. As quickly as she could, Zoe moved away from the creeping vines and handed Mia's knife back to her. "Sweet dive, by the way."

"Guess I still got a few tricks I didn't know I had..."

"You two do not understand how hard you are fucking up right now!" Zoe looked up and saw her mother crawling on the ceiling above them. Her stomach turned. "Little Evie is trying to make a perfect family and you want to shit all over it? I won't allow it!"

A hand on Zoe's arm brought her attention back to Mia, although the other woman was still staring up at the roof with a hard glare. "Go for the door. I'll be right behind you."

"I swear to god, if you're planning some kinda last stand, you gotta 'nother thing coming..."

Mia shoved her toward the ladder. "I'm not dying here and neither are you! Now go!" Zoe stumbled and was about to make her way back up top when she saw her mother drop from the roof like a bullet directly on top of Mia.

"No!" Without thinking, Zoe fired a shot into Marguerite's face, then another into her swollen belly when she stumbled back. Poor Mia was laying prone on the ground, and Zoe stepped between the two of them. "Don't make me do this, mama. I wanna fix this. I wanna make you better. But if you keep doing this, I will put you down!"

Marguerite shifted a few times, moving around on all fours. "N-No! I... Fuck. Fuck! Zoe you gotta... Zoe sweetie..." It was strange to hear the woman say something almost like her old self, but coming out in that monstrous voice. "Get on outta here... I can't stop forever but... but you gotta do it... Go!"

Zoe helped Mia to her feet and the two of them carefully made their way out of that hellhole and back to the main yard in stunned silence. They could still hear Marguerite raging in the distance as they moved to the trailer. With moderate effort, Zoe was able to lay Mia out on her bed. "We got some time to spare and you need to rest."

"We both need to rest. Get over here..." Mia spoke softly, her voice ragged. Zoe really didn't have the energy to argue with her about this, so she just flopped onto the bed next to her with an exhausted sigh. For what seemed like the millionth time in as many hours, it washed over her what had been happening. This time, she actually began to cry softly. Showing incredibly tenderness, Mia wrapped around her, brushing away her tears and stroking her hair. "I know. It's awful... But we're almost there. And you'll all be free."

Zoe really hoped that was true.


	4. Manchild

Mia wasn't exactly sure why it was she had decided to just open her arms and ask Zoe to join her there on that tiny-ass bed. It was clear almost from the first time that Zoe came to visit her there in her cell that the younger woman had a bit of a schoolgirl crush on her. Mia had a husband, and a life to return to when all this was over, and it made absolutely no sense to give the poor girl any kind of false hopes behind thinly veiled excuses about comforting her during her anxiety attack.

But then, that wasn't really true, was it? Mia knew exactly and precisely what she was doing. She waited until it seemed as though Zoe had finally calmed back down and gave a little sigh, just to signal that something was going through her mind. "I uh... I'm not really blind, ya know. I figured out pretty quickly why you were going to all the trouble of creeping into the house to see me all the time. And let's face it, I grew up in a military family, I joined the military myself, and now I'm working for a PMC. If someone were making advances on me and I didn't like it, I could make it stop pretty quick."

Surprisingly, that actually made Zoe laugh a little. "Yeah, I can imagine..."

Mia joined her in laughing and resumed petting her, if only because it seemed to be keeping her calm. "So what I'm trying to say is that... I didn't really mind it so much, if a pretty girl wanted to come around and make suggestive eyes at me... It's just that Ethan is... I married him because he was safe and nice and thoughtful. And at the time, when my work was mostly just helping soldiers through PTSD, that was what I needed." She watched the way the girl's hair would sway over her fingers as she considered each new word she wanted to say. "And I don't mean that I'm going to just run out on him because that's not me. But I wanted you to at least know what was going through my head, that I wasn't trying to ignore what you were telling me earlier. I damn sure don't judge you. High school is the time when everyone has ridiculous hook-ups while trying to find themself. You still have plenty of time to make up for it, if that's what you want to do..."

"Would you two just make out already? If you're not gonna come check out the party I've got set up, the least you could do is give me some dang entertainment!"

Instantly all of Zoe's stress and frustration was back as she hauled herself up from the bed, going to grab up the radio. "You pervy little shit. I shut this thing off, how the hell are you doing this?"

From the other end, they could hear Lucas give a raspy chuckle. "C'mon now, you don't think I'd give you a radio you could just turn off, did ya? I wired that baby up special myself, so I could keep tabs on ya! Surprise!" Zoe was just about to hurl the device at the wall before he spoke up again. "Ah ah ah! Break that baby, I break this vial."

Zoe hooked the radio into her belt and reached for her shotgun. "No rest for the wicked. Come on, Mia, we'd better get this over with. We'll have to catch a break after all this is done."

* * *

Lucas had really gone to extreme measures to make the barn his own. From the first moment the two of them walked inside, it was obvious that he had a pretty twisted sense of fun. Black lights and glowing writing on the walls invited them to the 'party' and Zoe groaned. "Can't say for sure yet, but I'm pretty sure that's bad. Real bad."

The sight of a lone TV sitting in the middle of the next room immediately set off Mia's own 'bad' senses. She motioned for Zoe to keep back and stepped slowly toward it. "Yeah, that's an IED alright... Think we better ignore it."

"Nope!" chimed the radio, and now even Mia was beginning to get as annoyed by Lucas as his sister already was. "It's a home movie I made just for Zoe and y'all have to watch it first or this whole thing will feel pointless!"

Mia groaned and stepped forward, turning the television on before quickly backstepping as far as she could and reaching for Zoe's hand as she prepared for the inevitable boom that was going to follow this damned movie. On the screen in front of them, a shockingly normal scene played out of a party, presumably a birthday, with a bunch of children running around. Zoe's hand clenched tighter and she started shaking her head slowly. "No no... Dammit, he really hasn't gotten over this."

"What is it?"

"Lucas' tenth birthday party. We were still a mostly normal family back then. Y'know, before we were considered the town weirdos. Before Lucas decided it was okay to lock up a kid who makes fun of you in the attic and let him rot. Daddy bought some fireworks to celebrate and... well... none of us were really paying attention or following what you might call proper safety protocols. Lucas was an idiot and burned the shit out of his hands and-"

"No! What happened was my piece of shit family decided they didn't love me anymore and tried to make me kill myself by leaving me alone with some explosives. But I persevered and survived! And now it's your turn to stick your hand in the fire, Zoe. And you too, Mia. Whether you decide to join Evie's family or take our Zoe away from us, you must reap the whirlwind!" The radio clicked and then a moment later the television exploded. Even with all the distance they'd put between it and themselves, Mia and Zoe still had to shield themselves and each other to avoid getting hurt by the shrapnel.

"Well... I'm glad you gave me back my leather jacket or that would have sucked..."

* * *

The television was only the first of many, many explosives. Trip wires, boxes, doors, mannequins... It was only thanks to Mia's training and Zoe's keen eye that they were able to make it through the halls without losing a limb. Not that it was as easy as that. There were more than a few molded wandering the building as well, and the only upshot of it all was that they were able to guide the simplistic creatures into traps and kill two birds with one stone.

That strategy became somewhat more difficult when a massive molded emerged from an elevator and began lumbering toward them, vomiting up something unpleasant. Whatever the caustic substance was, whenever it hit a trap, the contents were totally dissolved and the bomb was rendered inert.

"Whaddya think, Mia?" Zoe said, between shotgun blasts into the monster's face. "When we find that little rat bastard, should I punch him in the face? Hit him with the butt of my gun? Maybe just shove an explosive right up his-?"

"Zoe!" She was getting distracted with her tirade and completely failed to notice that an entire gut-full of acid was heading straight for her as the molded burst from all the damage. So Mia dove into her, knocking her out of the way. They lay there on the floor watching as it dissolved in on itself, uttering the most disturbing noises. It wasn't until Mia looked back at Zoe that she realized her action hero rescue had left her laying on top of Zoe, causing the poor girl to break out in a blush.

"Kiss de guuurlll~" Lucas crooned over the radio once again, and it obviously took every ounce of Zoe's patience to keep from smashing that radio.

Instead, Mia just got up and helped Zoe to her feet as the girl grumbled softly. "I've decided. I'm gonna find a firecracker. I don't know where but I'm gonna find one. And I'm gonna light it. And I'm gonna make him eat it. And watch as his stomach ruptures and he dies a slow, painful death."

"Hah, yeah, I think that's probably fair..." Mia wasn't in a mood to try and talk her down from her rage. This was obviously a sibling thing and they needed to work it out themselves.

* * *

That particularly nasty molded was the last of them, and finally they found a code for the door that Lucas was supposedly hiding behind. Except he still had one last surprise in store – not counting the blisteringly obvious spiked pendulum. Between Mia and Zoe, and their confrontation with Lucas, was a series of traps that reminded her vaguely of those escape rooms that had become so popular.

Ever the absolute jerk, Lucas forced them to put away all their things before he would let them begin. "Jacket and flannel too, young ladies. You're both too clever for your own good, you might use 'em for... somethin'. Somethin' wily. I won't have you ruining my game." Hesitantly, Mia put her treasured jacket inside the storage crate, followed by Zoe's overshirt. "Better. Try not to get distracted by each other in there!"

With that cheerful benediction, the door buzzed and swung open. Cautiously, they stepped inside and began exploring and doing their best to not actually activate anything until they had a grasp on what kind of maniacal traps littered this special 'game'. Eventually Lucas clued them in that the goal was to make it into the room with the cake to light the candles.

Goal in mind, they set about scouring every single inch of the place. Mia smirked and silently retrieved her knife, knowing full well that if Lucas saw it he would have a conniption. She sliced through a rope holding a door shut and gasped as a bunch of balloons floated around her. She stepped back and turned to see Zoe watching her and trying not to laugh at a grown woman being shocked by balloons.

"When you're done being a paranoid cat, I found somethin'." Blushing heavily, Mia followed her over into the cake room where Zoe was motioning to a big keg. "Almost pulled out this key thing here. I was thinking it might turn something on. But give 'er a whiff." Uncertain where this was going, Mia leaned in and carefully wafted whatever was coming off the container into her nose and immediately recoiled. "Combine whatever's in there with, say, fire on a candle and... fwoosh, we're toast. Little prick isn't just trying to have some fun. He wants us dead."

"Well, I think I'm feeling strong enough to brave the balloons now. Come on..." It felt oddly important to maintain a sense of humor through all this. Things were bad, dark, insufferable. They needed to find moments of levity. At the other end of the room, once you got used to the entire herd of creepy black balloons, you noticed a door with a weird lock on it. "Hmmm... five letter code... It says 'happy' which I would put money down is not the answer." Mia's analytical mind kicked in and she started scrolling through each one, creating a mental map of all possible combinations.

About halfway through the process, Zoe tapped her on the shoulder with a little sigh. "It's 'loser'. That was his favorite insult when he was a kid and afraid of cursing. Everyone and everything was a loser to him." She stepped back while Mia cued up the letters. "Um, do you think maybe he has a point?"

"About us making out or about what happened at this fabled party?"

If Zoe appreciated the poor timing on that joke, she didn't address it. Instead, she just answered the question in a sullen tone. "Is it my fault that he's so messed up? If I had just been paying more attention at that party instead of acting like a sulking teenager off in the corner, maybe he wouldn't be doing this now?"

The last letter slid into place and the lock clicked open. Mia stood and looked back at her, able only to offer a sad smile. "Do you want my honest assessment? Because I can't guarantee it'll make you feel any better..."

Zoe pushed her way into the room, yanking a loose wheel off the wall. "I'd still prefer to hear it from someone who knows what the hell they're actually talkin' about."

"The kinds of things he's doing, and especially considering your theory about whether or not he's even under Eveline's control, this would have happened eventually. If not being injured by fireworks, then maybe taking a really bad fall, or injuring himself while working with electronics. Sooner or later, he would find a way to make himself the victim in a family full of neglect."

Zoe slammed the wheel onto the pipe in the cake room, turning it with all the frustration she felt in her body. "There. Water's off. Go light the candle. I... just wanna get this done. And when it's all over, I wanna get far, far away from here."

Mia laughed nervously and went to light up the burner on the stove, jumping a little as it flared off before dimming to a reasonable burn. "Well... I'm gonna need a ride back to Texas." Mia didn't clarify if that was to go back to Ethan or to say goodbye to him. And Zoe didn't ask for clarification.

* * *

When the cake failed to kill them, Lucas tried dynamite. But Mia's knife combined with some training in dealing with explosives meant she was able to defuse that problem easily.

A panel in the wall slid open, one that she was ashamed to admit she hadn't even noticed. Slowly, Mia stepped through, finding the darkness was difficult to see in. "Alright Lucas, no more. We did everything you told us to. Give us the vi-"

There was a minimal amount of light emanating from a sad little room with a sad little set-up and a sad little man in a sad little chair. She didn't really have the time to take it all in, however. Because Lucas suddenly shot her directly in the gut, her world starting to spin. "I. Ain't. Crazy." he intoned angrily as everything started to go dark.


	5. Rags to Rags

Lucas was holding a massive hand cannon, a magnum, and had just sent a round directly into poor Mia's squishy bits. She was falling back to the ground, her face wracked with pain. "Mia!" Completely on instinct, Zoe lashed out with a palm strike, right up his nose. He screamed in pain and stumbled back into his seat. She grabbed the magnum as he dropped it and pointed the business end at his forehead. "You're gonna give us what we want and then you're gonna let us go. I am very much not in the mood to be fucked with right now. I can't kill you, but it'll hurt like a bitch when I send one of these rounds straight through your fucking brain. Try me. Give me one excuse."

The poor sod actually started to whimper as he reached for a drawer nearby and retrieved the sample for her. "My fu-fu-fuckin' nose... you bitch..."

"You know, I heard sometimes hitting a person like that can cause brain damage or even death. Seems I missed my mark. Shame." She grabbed the vial and pocketed it before resuming staring at him with the gun ready. "Boy you seem like you got some kinda death wish. And if that's the case, then you should want to help us. I might'a fucked up before, letting you scorch the shit outta yourself with those fireworks. But say the word and I'll come at you for real. You'll know if I actually want you dead."

"Wha-Whatever, get out..."

"Not yet. We need to know where the processor is."

"Jesus, fine..." He groaned and cradled his face in his hands for a moment, waiting impatiently for his regeneration to kick back in. Zoe felt no sympathy. "I put it down in the lab. You can reach it if you take that path through the guest house down into the mines. I can't promise Evie won't make it hellish."

"Wait, a lab? How in Sam Hill did you get a lab down there?"

With a grunt, her brother cracked his nose back into position and took a deep breath through his nostrils. "Ain't my lab. Some spooks came around shortly after little Eveline moved in. Wanted me to keep an eye on the situation. Even helped cure me of the brain chatter. Unlike your antidote, it let me hold on to that handy little limb-regrowing ability."

Mia whimpered softly and Zoe wanted so badly to take the woman in her arms and get her to safety. But to her amazement, she actually sat up, looking directly at Lucas with eyes narrowed. "Who."

"Who what?"

"The spooks. Who were they. And I... ngh... I don't wanna hear some bullshit about how you don't know for sure. If they didn't tell you, then you snooped and figured it out." Mia looked up at Zoe, her face still hard. "Shoot him in the knee if he refuses... That will actually hurt more than the face. Or blow off a finger. Either one."

"Gh'all right! Jesus, woman. They didn't make no attempt to hide it or nothing, said their group was called Umbrella."

Mia grimaced again as she climbed to her feet, and Zoe knew it was pointless to chastise her for this. So she just wrapped an arm around her shoulders to hold her upright. "C'mon, let's get you back to the trailer and see to that boo-boo. Think I got somethin' can do the trick."

/

Zoe's trailer looked like a nightmare with all the blood. She brought Mia in and set her on the rickety table before going looking for her med kit. "Okay, so the bad news is that I ain't exactly a doctor. The good news is the wound is clear. We got these weird plants in Dulvey. Everyone from pioneers to natives to voodoo witches use 'em cuz they're basically like magic."

She managed to locate a jar of the green liquid and sighed. Mia looked at it with eyes wide for a moment. "Arklay herbs? I thought those only grew in the area around Raccoon City... Do it, I'll be fine..."

She wasn't really looking forward to this, but Mia was right, this had to happen. She pulled up Mia's shirt, then popped open the cap and started to liberally drip the substance onto her wound. Again, her useless gayness was firing off somewhere in the back of her mind. But she managed to at least keep that buried somewhere it couldn't get in the way. Like always, the wound started to close up and heal itself, and some of the color was already returning to Mia's face. "Bullet went clean through. Thank Christ for small miracles..."

She started to sit up and Zoe was immediately and fearfully at her side with a hand to her shoulder. "It's okay, I just need a chance to breathe. Uhh, and maybe some alcohol?" She laughed nervously and ran her hand back and forth across her stomach.

Chuckling, Zoe went to a nearby cabinet, retrieving a massive fuck-off bottle of whiskey. Mia grabbed it from her and took a long swig without batting an eye. It was insanely attractive. Well, no, it was cool. Just cool, to see another woman drink so shamelessly. But not hot or anything. She couldn't let herself get caught up like that. Mia still had plans to go back to Texas, obviously intending to return to her husband. 'That way,' she mused, 'lies eternal madness.'

So she joined her on the table and they just sat there for a time, trading the bottle back and forth, drinking in silence. But Zoe finally decided it was time to chat about something. "So. You looked pretty freaked out by that name – Umbrella. Care to clue me in?"

"You ever hear about Raccoon City? That town out in the midwest that got totally blasted out of existence? So a lot of really terrible things happened out there, and it was pretty massively Umbrella Corp's fault. They've been involved in really gross behavior, experimentation, deaths, destruction... I know I'm not exactly in a position to judge since everything going on here is our fault. But what's really messing with me is that... that they were basically disbanded not too long ago. Which means someone else is operating under their banner." She got herself another long drink before passing off the bottle, now almost empty. "Sorry, I didn't mean to give an entire history lesson."

"Yeah, we had family out that way. Most of 'em were fine, they lived well outside the city. But uh... one of them was in Raccoon City during that whole thing and all we ever heard was that they contracted some virus. Lucas went on and on for ages about these conspiracy theories about _what really happened_ , but we never listened to him. Little bastard had a way of making even the truth sound like bullshit." As she spoke, somewhere inside herself, Zoe began to get a little angry – at the world, at these mysterious people, even at Mia. All these assholes who made decisions without ever thinking about how many people they could hurt. "Whatever, we should go..." She drained the last of the alcohol before tossing the bottle away haphazardly, then hopping down from the table and going to collect her things.

/

It was always a pain to head into the guest house. It was extra run-down and in horrible condition. It smelled awful, worst than almost any other place on the estate. Down in the basement, hidden away in a side room, was a collection of boards shutting off a door. Using her bat, Zoe began bashing the boards apart, quite possibly harnessing some buried frustrations considering how effortlessly they splintered.

They remained totally free of conversation as Zoe led the way down into the caves and mines below the Baker estate. She knew it was probably overly rude or suspicious, but there were a lot of thoughts buzzing around in her head and she didn't know how to give voice to them yet.

Almost immediately, they started getting jumped by molded. Zoe was the first to notice, and she cleanly took the head off one of them. She managed to take down one more, and was about to decimate a third when her shotgun clicked pathetically and she growled in frustration. Switching to her bat, she went in swinging on one of the four-legged crawlers, bashing over and over again until it finally stopped moving.

Zoe turned back to look at Mia who was presently gunning down a crawler of her own. That was when she noticed one of the bloated bastards walking up on the woman, unnoticed. It reared back to hurl acid at her, and Zoe knew she wouldn't be able to stop it with just her bat, and Mia was still too focused on the crawler to get out of the way in time. All grudges and complicated feelings aside, she couldn't let her take a blast of acid, unprotected. So she did the only thing she could do, returning the favor from earlier in the evening and diving into Mia to knock her out of the way.

Her world suddenly exploded in pain as the horrible sludge hit her square in the back, immediately eating through both her overshirt and her tank top, coating her back. It felt like the skin and muscle were gone in an instant, and Zoe was certain that her bones were already exposed based on how much it burned. She slumped to the ground with a heavy thud, and the last thing she heard before passing out was Mia losing it and unloading into all the molded until there were none left.

/

When Zoe finally came to, she was laying on her stomach. Her back didn't feel like it was constantly on fire anymore, so that was something. She was at least grateful that she wasn't laying on the stones of the cave anymore. Instead, she was on a metal counter in a room filled with screens and beakers and machinery. She glanced over to see Mia looking through some files and folders. "Mrrnn...? We in lab...?"

Mia gasped and put them down, rushing over to check on her. "Oh my god, you're okay! What were you thinking, diving right into the path of the acid like that?"

"Well... if I didn't do it... you'ld've gotten burned instead..." The memory returned of her poor shirts and she pouted slightly. "Ruined my clothes... not too happy about that... Wha'm I wearin'?"

Mia stepped back, suddenly looking incredibly embarrassed. "My jacket... I managed to get some first aid medicine on your burns but I needed something to cover the wounds besides bandages. I figured it was better than nothing."

"Hmm, my hero. You really are somethin' else, Mia..." Her back felt better, but it wasn't fully healed yet. Sitting up felt like a herculean task. There was a lot of awkward grunting and groaning, but at least she had Mia there to help get her upright. The realization of what she'd done, and how quickly Mia moved to help her brought something else to mind. "By the way, ugh, sorry for the cold shoulder earlier. I think it was just finally hitting home how much all of these different organizations operating in the damn shadows have fucked my life up. And I kinda sorta maybe started projecting that onto you."

Mia appeared totally unphased by this announcement, sitting next to her on the counter with a gentle smile. Perhaps she was in a forgiving mood, or maybe she could just empathize. She felt Mia's hand come to rest on top of hers and the two of them sat quietly for a few moments. "I've realized something... When all this is over, there's no way I can stay with my company anymore. I was at least trying to do something good about this bad thing they were making. But that was foolish. In the end, I think I'm going to need a clean break."

This felt massive, and Zoe knew she had to be careful about how she proceeded. "How clean...?" Her voice came out so soft and gentle, like a strong wind might shatter it. That felt oddly appropriate.

Mia took a slow breath, and Zoe noted just how much it shuddered in her chest. "The kind that involves divorce paperwork? And a very, very, very awkward conversation with my husband?"

She just couldn't help it. Zoe leaned in and brought her hand up to cup Mia's cheek, going in for the kill and kissing her hard on the lips. Mia obviously hadn't seen it coming, which was a shame because Zoe could swear she'd been telegraphing herself pretty well. On the plus side, the squeak she made in response was pretty damn cute. And despite her shock, she did end up leaning into it eventually.

But nothing perfect could ever last forever. Mia gently pushed away from the kiss with an embarrassed laugh and a pretty adorable blush. "Easy there, girl. I'm not divorced yet..."

"Ruin all my fun, why don't you?" Zoe said with a gentle sigh.

Laughing more, Mia reached up and gently adjusted on the jacket on her body and fiddled with the collar. "Yet, I said. For now, we have a job to do. I found the conversion machine in the adjacent room. We're so close. And then we can worry about normal, real world stuff. Okay?"

"Okay. Let's go kill a living weapon." It sounded so easy when you put it like that.


	6. Last Days of My Bitter Heart

Everything was quiet.

That wasn't necessarily good news.

Surely Evie knew what was going on. No doubt she was expecting Mia and Zoe to come after her. But any molded that were left had been disbanded. The path to Zoe's trailer was clear, and they were able to gather more ammo and check themselves without issue. As Mia gathered more ammo, Zoe was muttering something about her favorite flannel getting ruined and patching her wound again. She allowed herself a private smile at that. It was endearing, but then she also knew that she was feeling a bit biased at the moment.

Still, Mia couldn't shake the thought that Eveline was giving them this time. She was preparing too, and that was incredibly worrying. There was no other path but forward, so they left the trailer – hopefully for the last damn time – and moved into the foyer of the main house.

She was there. She was right there. And Zoe really wasn't kidding. Eveline's body had aged rapidly, so fast that she now seemed to be roughly the same age as her former caregiver. Her hands automatically gripped the machine gun tighter and she could swear that Zoe had moved closer to her as they reached the middle of the room. The thing was, Evie's mind was no doubt much the same as it had been when they embarked on their fated journey all those months ago. But if her body had changed, then Mia had to assume that her powers could very well be stronger too. And she had already been powerful enough to enslave an entire family and create those monsters.

"Evie..." Her voice immediately came out far shakier than Mia would have liked. But... well, too late to turn back now. "Evie, you still have a chance. A chance to leave this place and give these poor people some rest. I don't want to have to do this to you."

Eveline smiled, a look that was so childlike and dark and sinister and innocent all at the same time. She walked closer until she was less than a foot from Mia, right into her personal space. "You know, I'm older now. I'm more mature, and I know lots more stuff. An' maybe I was kinda forceful. If you and Zoe wanted to be my mommies instead, that would be okay..." Before she even had a chance to explain all the reasons that was not going to work, Eveline's hand raised up to rest against her cheek, just as Zoe had done not so long ago. Except this was completely different. Evie had obviously been getting more familiar with the mutamycete because her skin was slimy with mold. "...or you could be my wife... If I had know you liked girls..."

Mia recoiled, completely involuntarily, wincing and only barely suppressing her gag reflex.

That was definitely not the response the bioweapon wanted. Her eyes and nostrils flared wide and the hand that had been so gently touching Mia's cheek a moment before was now wrapped around her throat and lifting her effortlessly off the ground. "No. Of course. I'll just make you a toy instead. That'll be more fun anyways."

Breathing was getting more difficult and Mia was having some trouble with the dexterity in her hands. But she managed to retrieve her knife and drove it into Eveline's arm, causing her to drop her. Mostly, Mia was just desperate to avoid that sickening feeling of being taken over again. She stumbled back and reached for her gun where it had clattered to the floor. Zoe helped her back to her feet and she moved away slightly. "It's ending tonight Eveline. You have to understand that."

"I do. I understand." They had expected her to summon an army of molded to protect her. Neither of them had expected the room to become coated in mold, tendrils emerging from the mass of fungus. " _I understand that I'm tired of you lying to me!_ "

The plan to stick Eveline with the necrotoxin quickly had been dashed, and now they had to fall back to plan B – wing it. Every attempt to get closer to her was met with resistance, and for a time all either woman could do was blast away at the encroaching gross matter. " _What happened, mommy? Were you always a big fat liar? Or did you just decide it was time to break my heart?_ " The ichor split them up and soon Mia was all alone with mold creeping slowly, growing closer each second. She retrieved one of the bombs she'd found in the mine, setting it and tossing it into a collection of tendrils. The explosion was impressive, but just as soon they were replaced by even more. Mia could just make out the sound of some shotgun blasts and Zoe's grunts of anger. " _I hate you I hate you I hate-_ " The girl-woman's tirade was cut short by a loud 'thwack' and suddenly all the mold began to disintegrate back from whence it came. As it fell away, an image of Zoe standing over an unconscious bioweapon, bat in hand, came into view, and Mia laughed with relief.

"Wouldn't have thought she'd be susceptible to something like that. But at this point? I'll take whatever I can get..." The two of them crouched over Eveline's unconscious form, and Mia retrieved the necrotoxin and syringe from her jacket. "You know, I would feel bad about doing this while she's out, but uhh... it's probably for the best." Her hands moved carefully to extract the substance. While the entire point of this was to kill her, she still followed the proper procedure, clearing it of air bubbles and pressing the point into her neck precisely.

Almost instantly, Eveline's body began to dissolve until it was nothing but... well, mold, of course. They both backed up and put some distance between themselves and it. The pile of mold soon melted into nothing, as did the mold covering the walls. Zoe gasped softly and looked around at it all. "It's... It's actually working...!" Without really thinking she ran back across the foyer to Mia, throwing her arms around her and kissing her hard on the lips.

This time, she did not begrudge her the affection nearly as much. It was rather embarrassing to admit, but it was harder this time to separate. Even if both of them were grimy, with dirt-caked skin and chapped lips and covered in effluvial grime, it mattered little. It was over.

Then, the mold returned. Explosively.

* * *

Mia's head was spinning. She was vaguely aware of grass under her body. The sky was lit by a sun that had just begun to rise – dawn. Zoe was nearby, groaning. The sound was far overpowered by a monstrous roaring coming from a huge black... thing emerging from the now-destroyed Baker estate.

" _You're gonna stay and behave! You're both gonna play nice! Or I'll crush you!_ "

Mia fumbled for her gun which had landed relatively close by, if only through the grace of God. Once on her feet, she fired off a few rounds into the flat, wide face of the thing that used to be Eveline. It seemed to aggravate her more than anything.

" _Gaahhh! I hate you I hate you! Why won't you be my friend? Why can't I have a family!_ "

Under the hollow roar, there was a new sound approaching from the distance. A fluttering or... or... Helicopters? Mia alternated between scanning the skyline and watching to see what Eveline would try next. If it was a civilian copter, or hell, even military? They were going to get annihilated in an instant. But whoever it was, they had obviously been counting on trouble, because before Mia ever saw the transport itself, a rocket came screaming over the trees, striking the mass with precision.

The next thing she saw was a vaguely familiar logo on the side of the helicopter. One that she had been unconsciously on the lookout for ever since their little talk with Lucas. "Umbrella...?"

Someone from within pushed out a crate that landed next to her, a weapon tumbling out of it. "Agent Winters! End this!"

That simple message over the loudspeaker raised a wealth of questions, but Mia didn't really have a chance to ask them. She just tossed her machine gun, picking up the bizarrely massive hand cannon and training it on Eveline. She fired, and the recoil damn near kicked the gun back into her face. But she would have gladly let it, because that single shot was enough to do the job. The monster calcified, then crumbled.

Laughing, Mia tumbled back to the ground next to Zoe. "Hah, okay... Not jinxing it this time..."

Zoe, having finally regained consciousness herself, reached over and grabbed her hand, joining her in laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all. "Good call..."

On the other end of the lawn, the helicopter landed and a figure in body armor stepped out. She removed her helmet revealing a surprisingly pretty face and red hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. "Agent Winters? I'm Agent Redfield. I'm here to bring you home."

* * *

Traveling by helicopter, it wasn't exactly far to the headquarters in Texas. Well, it _was_ a headquarters, once upon a time. According to the Redfield woman, the organization Mia worked for had been absorbed by Umbrella – the 'new Umbrella', she assured them. So now it was more of an outpost, one of many across the world that would allow for quick mobilization to areas where bad things happened.

"Any particular reason Miss Baker wanted to come along and not stay with her family?"

"None I feel obliged to share..." Zoe said mysteriously. Or yelled mysteriously, since they had to communicate by headset to be heard over the damn engine.

"Okay... And is there any particular reason we're not dropping you closer to your home, Agent Winters?"

Mia winced. Considering the decisions she'd made recently, neither the word 'agent' nor the name 'Winters' would likely apply for much longer. "...None I feel obliged to share... I want to go somewhere that I can get a goddamn shower and a goddamn change of clothes and sleep for about 48 goddamn hours, and then I want some goddamn answers and a goddamn car."

That pretty much put an end to the conversation and they traveled the rest of the way in relative silence. Luckily, as it turned out, having your organization absorbed by a group with as many assets as Umbrella had its perks. The top floor of the building had been fitted with spaces where agents could rest before or after missions. Each of them had been given a room with a shower and a bed, as well as a change of clothes. Obviously 48 hours was a bit much to ask for, but Redfield seemed understanding and gave them eight instead.

It wasn't just nice to shower. It wasn't only relaxing. It did not just cleanse her. It made her feel more alive. Months and months and months of dirt and grime and anguish and pain finally washing away. She spent a good amount of time just crying. The good kind, the bad kind, the confusing kind. The important thing was just that she did it. By the time Mia was out, dressed, and drying her hair, she almost felt like a new woman.

There was a knock at her door, and standing there on the other side was Zoe, fresh from her own shower and dressed in her new duds. "Howdy, ma'am. Need a li'l comp'ny?"

Mia chuckled awkwardly and looked back into the room. A big cozy bed with plenty of space. It would be nice to not only get some rest, but to have Zoe by her side.

Which was why it was so hard to turn her down. "Please... not yet, I just... I-I wanna do this right. I feel bad enough for kissing you... Please?"

Zoe's head dropped slightly and she scuffed a foot on the carpet with a dry, rasping laugh. "Hah, yeah, I sorta figured. But you can't blame a gal for tryin', huh?"

"No, I really can't. I promise, I just wanna finish things up here, go see Ethan, and then get far, far away from here. And I want you there with me. Think you can keep it in your pants til then, firecracker?"

Zoe opened her arms for a no-harm-no-foul hug, and Mia couldn't deny her that much. Even that felt a little bit like cheating, but it was also foolish to think she didn't need some kind of physical support. She had just been crying in the shower after all. "Sweet dreams, sug'. You earned it."

Mia closed the door and shut off the lights. Her head hit the pillow and she immediately passed out.


	7. Beautiful Freak

Zoe knew she had been pressing her luck last night going to Mia's room with her best attempt at sultry eyes and inviting posture. It hadn't even worked, and so now she just had this one big bed to herself and a headful of angst. Her only saving grace was that she had been way too exhausted for insomnia.

Presumably eight hours later, Zoe was woken by the sound of gentle knocking at her door. Eyes bleary and head in a fog, she sat up. It took a while to process why she was most definitely not in her trailer. "Uh... Uh yeah...?"

"Miss Baker? It's Agent Redfield. I've left you some new clothes out here. When you and Agent Winters have changed, please come down to the next floor, conference room three. We have some coffee and real food for you. Hopefully we can finally give each other some answers."

The promise of caffeine was enough to get Zoe up and moving. As promised, there were some jeans and a long-sleeved shirt waiting on the floor, neatly folded. She met Mia in the hall, and there was definitely some awkwardness in the air as they headed for the stairwell to move down to the next floor per instructions. Despite the fact that the building was different from the last time Mia had seen it, she still knew the general layout well enough to find the meeting room in question.

To Zoe's surprise, it was a comfortable space, almost more of a lounge with two couches and a coffee table. There was a tray with coffee and a platter of various treats, and neither woman needed any encouragement to settle in and start snacking. Even more shocking though was the agent from before. Redfield was no longer in any kind of uniform but dressed fairly similar to the two of them in jeans and a plain shirt. "Seems like you both are feeling better."

"I'll be right as rain as soon as I get something in my system that ain't half-rotten or canned or condensed" Zoe said, mouth already filled of danish. She eased the swallowing process with some coffee, barely even registering how hot or bitter it was. "So, you gotta first name, mystery girl?"

She settled back more in her seat with a little chuckle. "It's Claire. I guess since I'm technically off-duty right now, there's no point in maintaining all that military stuffiness."

"God yes" Mia agreed after adding her third packet of sugar to her coffee cup.

"Well, alright then. I'll do my best to explain things in a little more detail now that we're not yelling to be heard over a chopper engine..." Claire sighed and made herself a cup of coffee as well. "Mia, as you're no doubt aware, until recently, Umbrella was... Well, there's really no nice way to say it. They were an evil bunch of bastards. It took decades to finally take them down, and there was a massive body count on the path to get there. But finally, their stocks tanked low enough that they simple couldn't carry themselves underneath the weight of their own lunacy. If everyone just let Umbrella die, ironically, there was every danger that it would rise again under some new banner. So my old company, along with some others, bought the corporation in a goodwill agreement. We would take the remaining resources and the name Umbrella, and do something good with it. Between the assets our various groups already possessed and what we inherited from the old Umbrella, we now have offices on every continent. We continued buying out other PMCs and bioweapon manufacturers so that we could shut down any operations they had from the top down. Unfortunately, we didn't find out about the situation with E-001... uh, Eveline... until it was already too late. Zoe, your brother was the one who contacted us and said things were coming to a head and that we needed to get out to Dulvey ASAP."

"Little prick actually did the right thing for once..." Zoe mused quietly, mostly to herself. She wondered how her family was doing now in the aftermath, but at the same time, she had always wanted to get out of there. Perhaps there was no right time, and the only thing she could do was take the opportunity that presented itself.

"While the two of you were out, orders came down from the brass. You're both being offered jobs with Umbrella, if you want them."

Mia went visibly rigid, and she moved slowly to drain the last of her coffee cup. Zoe held her breath, uncertain what to expect in the next few seconds. "You can understand why I'm hesitant to accept..."

"Obviously. If it's any consolation, Umbrella in its new incarnation has no branch developing the kinds of projects that led to things like the destruction of Raccoon City nor those that created Eveline and others like her. Our goal is to eliminate such tampering and keep the world safe from disasters of that magnitude." It was clear that Claire wasn't necessarily happy to be the one delivering this news. But if Zoe were being honest, she preferred a friendly and trustworthy face to some stony dude they'd never seen before.

The tension drained out of Mia and she sunk back into the couch. "I have a few requests before I make any kind of decision..."

"Naturally. Just for the boys upstairs, walk me through the events from your points of view to the best of your recollection, and then we'll see about getting you what you need."

* * *

Umbrella clearly had some money to spare, because the car they loaned to them was pretty damn nice. Zoe turned the vehicle onto the interstate headed for Mia's house. Neither of them were talking. They both had a lot to think about.

She knew it was ridiculous, but there was this awful feeling in her gut that Mia would ultimately decide to stay with Ethan and probably quit her line of work. But for Zoe, the answer was obvious. It turned out she had more than a few skills, and a hell of a lot of gumption to go along with it. She might not have been properly trained, but Claire had promised her that stuff would come in time. She could become useful, have a real job, make a difference in the world. Plus, if she was ditched, it seemed like the kind of job she could sink herself into to forget.

It was only a town or two over to get where they were going. Still feeling ill, Zoe came to a stop outside the most boring, suburban-looking house she'd ever seen. It made sense that they'd live in a place like this. "Uhh, you can um... go into town and explore for a while if you want. There isn't much to see, but there's a nice diner on Main Street. I can call you on that burner phone when we're done..."

Zoe reached for the phone in question and turned it over in her hand. "I think I'll probably just stay out here. Drain the battery for a while and listen to the radio. Unless you want-"

"No... No, of course not, you should do what you want... I don't really know how long or-"

"I'll be fine. I got all the time in the world. Go see your man." Zoe wasn't sure if she was sad or bitter or mad or maybe all of the above.

Mia exited the car and headed for the front door, allowing one quick glance over her shoulder before knocking. A generically handsome-looking dude opened the door and immediately pulled Mia into a vice hug before ushering her inside. As promised, Zoe sat where she was, fiddling with the radio in the dashboard, trying to find something that would help distract her.

Sermon. Sermon. Easy listening. Country. Sermon. Country. "Ah-hah..." She landed on a station playing old-school punk rock and jacked up the volume a touch, reclining back in her seat and staring out at the street ahead of her. How long would it take? Five minutes? Thirty? An hour? Three? Not that it mattered. Zoe knew she would wait it out regardless. She had to have her answer. Even if she ended up going back to Umbrella alone, the important thing was just to finally know.

Despite the fact that there was a clock right there in the dashboard, Zoe eventually lost track of the time. She distracted herself with the burner phone, messing around with it idly. She didn't even realize that Mia had returned until a knock at the passenger window caused her to jump with a soft gasp. "Fuck me..." She unlocked the door and Mia climbed in, buckling herself in. "Am I allowed to ask how it went?"

Mia released a lengthy, deep sigh and nodded. "I ended up lying more than I would have liked. But just telling him who I really worked for and what I did, why I'd been gone so long, he had a hard enough time with all of that. I didn't have the heart to explain about all the spooky shit. He didn't like the lying or the thought that I might get in danger again, and we had an argument about him thinking I wasn't strong enough. He uh... H-He was actually the first one to say 'divorce' out loud." She reached up and started fussing with her hair a bit. "Is there a word for getting what you want and being really sad about it?"

Zoe shook her head and started up the car, heading back for Umbrella. "Unfortunately, I think that's just called life, sweetie..."

* * *

With a hearty yawn and an impressive stretch, Zoe made her way out of the bedroom and through the living room to the window to look out over the city. Well, city was a generous term. Raccoon City was barely a burg, only just beginning to attract residents and businesses again. It was like a military town, except populated by various agents and contractors of Umbrella instead of any government employees.

Still, it wasn't Dulvey. That was important.

Moving into the kitchen, she set a pot of coffee to boil and hunted down a bagel and some cream cheese, occasionally wiping at her eyes. A black cat hopped up onto the counter and nuzzled into her affectionately. "Evie, what did I tell you about getting on the counter? Aw hell, what's the point? Yer gonna do as you please, ain't ya?" She attended to the cat's need for affection while the coffee maker bubbled and fizzled.

Settling in with her breakfast, she looked over her work tablet, checking e-mail and the news.

There was some soft noise from the bedroom and Mia emerged in shorts and a t-shirt, looking even more bleary-eyed than she had been herself. She stumbled her way over to where Zoe was sitting and kissed her on the top of the head with a soft hum. "Morning, agent Baker..."

"Morning, agent Summers..." She really couldn't get over that. Apparently that was how Mia had first gotten to know Ethan – ironic surnames. "You sleep okay?"

"Mmm, like a baby. These apartments may not be the nicest, but a home is a home." Mia soon joined her at the table, quickly assaulted by Eveline for nuzzles as well. "Lots of counseling to get done. Ada and Barry... Oh, and Ashley Graham... As in daughter of former president Graham. Our lives are weird."

"Well hell, if we're comparing weirdness I got you beat," Zoe said, mouth partially filled with bagel. "There's a situation in Transylvania of all places. But I promise not to get seduced by a vampire or nothin'. Besides, Leon is leading the mission. Gonna be a cakewalk with that cowboy around."

Mia moved her hand from the cat and took Zoe's, squeezing it gently. "I know."

She still felt foolish every now and then, fearing that Mia might not want to stay with her. With the obstacles removed, it was so clear how much they needed each other. Sometimes missions got hairy. Sometimes the stress could be difficult to bear. But they were here and alive and together. That was what mattered.


End file.
